One of the most memorable coups of the 2012 Toronto
International Film Festival is the “best bad idea” of Ben Affleck’s Argo, which gave a sweepingly
Hollywoodized account of history, flipped the bird to Canadian audiences (who
voted the film the runner-up for People’s Choice), and then went on to win Best
Picture at the Oscars. If Argo seems
too big or mainstream for some festivalgoers, then film buffs who like their
movies with a side order of subtitles will love the Argo relative Very Big Shot,
which makes its World Premiere in the Discovery Programme this year. This wild
co-pro from Lebanon and Qatar is like Argo
meets Reservoir Dogs, but with a
political heft one doesn’t usually film in Hollywood. World cinema fans
rejoice.

Even seasoned filmmakers behind the biggest of Hollywood
productions sometimes struggle to balance slickness and grit in
action-comedies, so it bodes well for Beirut-born director Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya
that his first feature can stand alongside the heavy hitters at this year’s
festival. Very Big Shot is both
explosive and funny, coarse and polished, and rough and witty. The film runs
with a novel plot akin to the fake movie scenario of the Canadian Caper in Argo when two drug-dealing brothers,
Ziad (Alain Saadeh) and Joe (Tarek Yaacoub), decide to up their gam and
graduate from being petty smugglers. They currently use a pizza parlor as a
front, but going Hollywood lets their drug ring go international when the
brothers learn that film canisters may bypass x-ray scanners at airports. Moving
drugs and moving hostages, however, both need a convincing fake movie to make
an effective smokescreen. It’s the best bad idea two drug dealers can find.

The brothers hire their director a bit like Tony Mendez
recruits his crew when they call on a hack film producer named Charbel (Fouad
Yammine) who is running up a mighty tab buying “special pizzas” from the Pizza
Royal. Instead of making some crappy Canadian commercial venture, though, Ziad
sees the Oscar as he makes his pitch to Charbel to make the movie. Their story
is one that comes from the streets of Beirut and takes the cultural pulse for a
Romeo and Juliet tale of forbidden
romance as a Christian girl meets a Muslim boy and they profess their love
despite social mores that say the two kinds shouldn’t mingle. As Very Big Shot spirals the farce into the
larger community, the neighbours agree and the film finds the kind of publicity
that even Hollywood can’t wrangle.

Charbel doesn’t know that the movie is all a hoax, though,
and he fervently does he best to deliver the goods to his keen producers.
Elements of fiction and reality creep onto the set and bring the film to life,
much to the filmmaker’s chagrin, such as a hack actor and then his replacement
who refuses to call himself a Muslim, even if it’s only a bit of role playing. Very Big Shot amplifies cultural
tensions in Beirut for comedic and dramatic effect, which gives the film an air
of immediacy even as it becomes more farcical. The film also becomes far more
cinematic the more that Ziad propels himself into the business of making
movies. (He relishes the cushy role of producer and takes every chance to
nibble a melon or be fanned by production hands.) Fluid cinematography draws
attention to the art of filmmaking as Very
Big Shot evolves from rough and tumble to slick and cinematic, blurring art
and life as the film within a film spills into the streets and the community
surrounding the production becomes a part of the narrative. Some tonal shifts
and issues with pacing notwithstanding, Very
Big Shot proves highly entertaining as a satire that weaves multiple levels
of commentary into one solid package.

Rating: ★★★½ (out of ★★★★★)

Very Big Shot
screens:

-Friday, Sept. 11 at Scotiabank 14 at 6:30 PM

-Sunday, Sept. 13 at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema at 10:15 PM

-Sunday, Sept. 20 at Scotiabank 4 at 9:00 AM

Please visit www.tiff.net for more
information on this year’s festival.